Conventional automotive vehicles are typically entered by lifting or pulling on an exterior door handle to thereby actuate a lever contained within the door, thereby unlatching the door so that it may freely pivot about a hinge mechanism. Modern vehicle doors may include a remote access device such as a push-button key fob that an occupant may activate a short distance away from the vehicle in order to automatically unlock one or more vehicle doors. Certain vehicles such as minivans may include one or more power sliding side doors, which may be similarly activated using a button on the inside of the vehicle or on a push-button fob. With such remote access devices, vehicle doors automatically lock or unlock, and sometimes open and close, at the touch of a button, thus simplifying entry to and egress from the vehicle. Additionally, passive entry mechanisms are also available with certain vehicles to allow automatic unlocking of an exterior door upon detection of the proximate presence of the passive entry mechanism.
While such remote access and passive entry devices are useful for some purposes, they may prove less than optimally efficient under certain circumstances. For example, when using a standard manual door handle, at least one hand must remain free or unencumbered in order to exert sufficient force on the door handle. Likewise, the use of a button on a key fob requires depressing one or more buttons on the key fob, usually using a finger or thumb. However, when an occupant approaches a vehicle with full arms, such as when holding a child, or bags of groceries, packages, or other similar items, or with limited personal mobility, the manual actuation of a door handle and/or the depression of a manual button on a key fob may prove to be a challenging maneuver.